Born in 1973, Shirai is currently working at the art school ripehouse in Higashi Osaka City. He has been continuing his landscape paintings for over 20 years since around 2005.
In recent years, he has taken inspiration from landscape photographs found in old mountaineering guides in his classroom, breaking down the topography of mountains around the world into grid-like compositions to produce landscapes with distinctive color arrangements.
In his works on paper, he first sketches with pencil, then carefully layers colored pencil over it. The result is a subdued palette where the pencil gray subtly blends with the colors.
After completing a drawing, he often recreates the same composition on canvas using acrylic paint. Even then, the gray of the pencil is incorporated, lending the work a unique texture and slightly muted tone.
From Shirai’s hands emerge original landscapes that unfold from the real world and awaken a variety of sensory impressions.